Supermarket giant commits to 100% renewables

Multinational supermarket Tesco has pledged to source all of its electricity from renewables by 2030 in addition to cutting its emissions by 60 per cent by 2025.

Tesco – which is one of the world’s largest retailers, with 6,500 stores in 8 countries – has become the 93rd RE100 company to commit to 100 per cent renewable energy targets.

The international retail company will source more than half of its renewable energy 100 per cent target from onsite generation and power purchase agreements (PPAs) with direct suppliers.

Tesco has also set an interim target to source 65 per cent renewable electricity by 2020.

Other high profile RE100 members include IKEA, the BMW Group, UBS, Bank of America and Unilever.

Tesco has also become one of 44 international companies to have had its emissions reduction goals approved by the Science-Based Targets (SBT) initiative.

The SBT is a joint initiative of CDP, the UN Global Compact (UNGC), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and WWF, which aims to enable leading companies to set ambitious and meaningful corporate greenhouse as reduction targets that in line with what is required to keep global temperature increases below 2°C of warming.

To date, over 260 companies around the world have signed up or had their targets approved under the SBT initiative, including Coca-Cola.

Under its SBT plan, Tesco has committed to achieve absolute reductions – based on 2015 level – of 60 per cent by 2025 and 100 per cent by 2050.

The international retail company has also pledged to phase out plastic microbeads from its products.

Earlier this year, Tesco announced the launch of an innovative platform which will help identify areas where food waste can be tackled.